And so Toccata Classics launches yet another series I’ll be following closely. Moritz Moszkowski was a household name at the turn of the 20th Century. Both as a pianist and a composer of piano music he was in demand. By 1910, ill-health had ended his concert career and he — and his music — was […]
Ian Hobson
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Moritz Moszkowski series continues with sweet orchestral suites
This installment of Moritz Moszkowski orchestral music features two of his three orchestral suites. Ian Hobson and the Sinfonia Varsovia deliver sympathetic performances. The strings especially seem to exude the Romantic gooeyness of Moskowski’s style. The ensemble is well-recorded. The sound has a little bit of soft focus, but all the music details can be […]
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Moritz Moszkowski Orchestral Series Starts Ambitiously
Moritz Moszkowski was one of the most successful concert pianists of the 1890s. His fame today rests mainly on a small selection of his piano works that test the virtuosity of the performer. But this Polish composer wrote so much more; chamber music, concertos, and orchestral music. With this release, Toccata Classics launches an ambitious […]
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Martinu Early Orchestral Works, Vol. 3 fills in background
The major work of this release is “Vanishing Night.” Martinu revised this work with the help of his teacher Josef Suk. The work is a compendium of Martinu’s early impressionist style. Originally, it was thought that only a portion of “Vanishing Midnight” survived. Recently orchestral parts for the missing movements were rediscovered, and for the […]
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Henry Cotter Nixon Volume 2 – Sophomore Slump?
I loved the first installment of this three-part series. This, the second, I have a few reservations about. Henry Cotter Nixon spent most of his professional life at the edges of the English musical world. Although his music won awards, his career outside of London hampered performances. This volume features a variety of works that, to my […]
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Kate Loder Piano Music – a Victorian composer returns
In the 1840s The Musical World called Kate Loder (1825-1904) one of the finest pianists of the day “without reference to her age or sex or country.” Loder was young, female, and British at a time when audiences preferred their musicians older, male, and foreign (preferably German). Loder came from a musical family and exhibited […]